Change with Sarvodaya

The Khanapur taluk rural society unites under Dr Dabade and his jagruti
Change with Sarvodaya

HUBBALLI: A doctor by profession and social activist by choice, Dr Gopal Dabade from Dharwad sits in his garden and recalls his days of struggle while implementing what Mahatma Gandhi had said several decades ago. Living by the principles of the Mahatma was not so easy for him and his family members, who were threatened, dragged to court and humiliated, to break the increasing awareness among the suppressed classes of society.

Coming from a family of freedom fighters, the Dabade couple did not lose hope. Thanks to their persistence, today nearly 30 villages in Khanapur taluk of Belagavi stand out from the rest in terms of socio-economic development.

These villages are being developed in keeping with the Sarvodaya philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan and Vinoba Bhave. The panchayats have been activated by learned village folk who demand their rights from the administration. The decades-old fight from the grassroots has now provided the villagers with a common platform to share their grievances and rectify them. 

“My father, Narasimha Dabade, was a well-known freedom fighter from his region. He, along with his wife and mother, has gone to jail many times during the freedom struggle. During our younger days, our house would be filled with people with Gandhian thoughts. They were an automatic influence in my childhood. When I started out in the villages of Khanapur during my tenure as a doctor, my father once told me, this is what Mahatma Gandhi termed ‘Sarvodaya’,” recalled Gopal Dabade, founder of Jagruti.

“It began in 1992, when I was posted in Kittur. I found that villagers of Kulavalli and the surroundings were living in a bad state. They had no roads, medical facilities or labour. They were given lands by a landlord from Kittur to use for a few years, and had no basic amenities. I formed a group of youths and we started from Kulavalli village. We held protests and wrote to the administration. Finally, we managed to get roads, school and a health centre in the village,” Dabade said.

The group of youngsters formed for the betterment of these villages later came together to serve in Goshanahatti village. “As three of the group members were from Goshanagatti village in Khanapur, they began working with the villagers on the Sarvodaya principles. We formed Jagruti in 1998 and since then, have been involved in the uplift of the rural masses. Today, Jagruti is actively working in 30 villages of Khanapur taluk,” he added.

The Jagruta Mahila Vakkoota, an offshoot of the organisation, has 2,000-plus members in these villages. At any given time, nearly 800 women are ready to give their time for any social cause to help the other members of the villages -- be it a pension amount or any kind of civic work that needs to be taken up in the village. 

Starting from complaints with electricity to drinking water supply, this forum comes to the rescue of villagers. The members have also ensured that primary health centres run effectively and provide free treatment to the villagers.

“The households in these villages would see a lot of domestic violence. Members of the Vakkota helped the village women solve the domestic violence cases and also had a role in removing several arrack breweries from these villages. After a relentless fight by the women, the administration had to close down the liquor shop. Since it’s now been reopened, the forum members are planning another round of 
agitation,” he noted.

“With an aim to make the rural masses economically stronger, Jagruti took up implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in these villages in 2006. Nearly 100 lakes were desilted with the help of the villagers. These villages became the first ones in Karnataka where the scheme was implemented effectively. A microfinance scheme was established for the rural folk and today, the members pool in money for several programmes on a regular basis,” said Sharada Dabade, co-founder, project head of Jagruti.

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